I want to add an antipsychotic to my zyprexa, and clozapine they say works really good.
Clozapine does work well, but it’s side effects can be daunting. First off, you’ll have to get your blood tested once a week for 6 months, then every 2 weeks for another 6 months. If that’s all normal, once a month forever. It can make you salivate so much that you choke on your own saliva, so then there’s atropine drops you have to put under your tongue daily. You’ll want to sleep 12-14 hours a day on it, and your appetite will get crazy for eating. These are all side effects that I’ve experienced…
That said, this med has given me my mind back. It’s reduced the Voices but more importantly to me, it has taken away the suicidal ideation and urges to cut or burn myself. I’ve only had one hospitalization this year…prior to clozapine I would have 4-5 visits a year. So, yeah, even tho it’s got a lot of issues, to me it’s worth it.
Zyprexa AND clozapine? 
Isn’t clozapine supposed to often work, on its own, when another med like zyprexa does not?
I would be afraid to mix two APs. Especially two as heavy as that. Zyprexa impacted my body immensely, disturbing all my hormones, making me eat and sleep tons and feel very sedated. I have heard Clozapine does the same. As @whiteraven says. Isnt clozapine only an option? Or working on symptoms with other means, like therapy?
But I’m no doc…and I dislike giving people medication advice on a forum. I think you need a - good - doc. And need to discuss this with him/her.
I’m on zyprexa and vraylar.
As the guys say. There are side- effects. Also clozapine is usually taken alone when other drugs don’t work
I refused to go on clozapine because of the blood work.
Clozapine and Zyprexa are very safe to mix pita as there chemically structure are very alike.
Don tknow. But doesn’t that mean the side effect profile is similar (metabolic problems, sedation, etc). And that doubling that up, means you have a lot of food cravings and weight gain and sleepiness? Just asking…I never used clozapine or researched this combo.
My you are right Marian in that the side effects doubles every time you introduce a new psykiatric meds to a patient.
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Clozapine is sort of a last resort drug if you have tried 2 or 3 other antipsychotics and those don’t work you get classified as treatment resistant, and then clozapine comes into play since it is the best drug for treatment resistant schizoprenia. Also because it usually carries more side effects than the other antipsychotics, doctors don’t take lightly on perscribing it.
If you have tried several of the other antipsychotics and they don’t work, the first step would be to use clozapine alone. Generally you want to avoid using more than 1 AP, especially when using clozapine because of the potential for heavy side effects.